The Mixing Pot project began in 2016, out of a belief that food is the ultimate way to bring people together. Created by Oxford City Council’s Culture Team, with the help of local artist Diana Bell, the Mixing Pot toured around Oxford’s community centres for a week to collect recipes and food stories from different communities, telling the story of Oxford’s multi-cultural population through the food they love. We hope to start conversations around food, helping to connect communities through the food that is important to them.

We’ve turned the collection so far into this online record of the flavours of the city. We hope the Mixing Pot will be out and about again in the future, but in the meantime you can add your own flavour to the pot online, explore the contributions of your neighbours and start mixing!

Oxford City Council Culture Team

The Culture Team at Oxford City Council oversee many events and partnerships, from Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival and Dancin’ Oxford, to the hundreds of events that take place in public spaces throughout the city. We also run the Culture Fund funding programme for smaller organisations, and fund some of Oxford’s cultural institutions, as well as supporting the city’s twinning links around the world. We are a food-mad team, and believe that food is a key part of culture!

Kazem Hakimi – Project Photographer

The photos you see in this collection were taken by local Oxford legend, fish & chip shop proprietor, and photographer Kazem Hakimi, whose recent exhibition ‘Portraits from a Chip Shop’ gathered much local and national interest. We knew Kazem’s eye for characters would capture the people behind the recipes contributed at our events in October 2016.

Diana Bell – Artist

Diana makes large scale sculptures to commission and specialises in participatory public art that gets people involved. Her past participatory works have included the Big Book and the Big Question Mark. Find out more about Diana’s work at www.dianabell.co.uk